Let’s hope that ObamaCare is crumbling under its own weight, as some analysts believe is the case. This morning, JLF’s Katherine Restrepo analyzes ObamaCare’s individual mandate in the wake of the official “deadline” to purchase government approved insurance or pay a penalty.
And due to the lengthy lists of penalty exemptions and hardship exemptions, the individual mandate really lacks muscle. Exemptions pertain to those who do not file federal taxes, whose premiums for the lowest-cost compliant plan available exceed 8 percent of their income, or who do not have health insurance for less than three months at a time.
Those are just a few of the penalty exemptions. Below are some hardship exemptions from healthcare.gov:
- Individuals who would have been eligible for Medicaid if their state opted for Medicaid expansion
- Domestic violence victims
- Family death
- You had medical expenses you could not pay in the last 24 months
- You experienced unexpected increases in necessary expenses due to caring for an ill, disabled, or aging family member
But wait. There’s more.
You’ll find out what Katherine means here.
What should we do to right the health insurance ship? To begin with, give people choices, not mandates and penalties. Katherine’s ongoing analysis is available here.
